Loneliness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men loneliness runs alongside friendship as a major theme. Although ranch life in 1930s America is lonely for migrants worker and many other people, George and Lennie, two of "the loneliest guys in the world” (Steinbeck 13), at least have each other. For African-Americans like Crooks, women like Curley's wife, or the old men like Candy, life is far more lonely.
The person who expresses his loneliness most openly and deeply is Crooks the Black stable-hand, a victim of racial prejudice.Crooks is isolated because of his race, his disability and his deep mistrust of others. He is physically separated from the other men and has his own room in the barn. His crooked back means that like candy he has limited social or work contact with the other men as he tends the horses. His loneliness forces him to conform when Lennie

Crooks withdraws his request to be part of Lennie and George’s dream after Curley’s wife puts him in his place. His understandable suspicions and fears about how others treat him return and he cannot see beyond the prejudice he has always experienced. When Lennie enters his room uninvited, Crooks, out of bitter pride, exercises his only right, that of privacy in his own room. (Steinbeck 68) He is so desperately lonely that he cruelly tries to hurt Lennie with tales of George deserting him to try to make him understand what it feels like to be so alone. ( Steinbeck 71-72) His jealousy of their friendship is shown when he says: "George can tell you screwy things, and it don't matter. It's just the talking. It's just being' with another guy.” (Steinbeck 71) Happy to have someone to talk to, he